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California Recall Backer Feels Heat

Most Californians have never heard of Darrell Issa, the millionaire congressman who is bankrolling the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis. But chances are, many know his voice.

Before he embarked on a second career in politics, Mr. Issa, a conservative Republican from San Diego, made a $100 million fortune in the car-alarm business. That was his recorded voice on the Viper alarm system warning the interloper and stray dog alike to ''please step away from the car.''

''That's me,'' said Mr. Issa, raising his eyebrows, while sitting in his sparse campaign headquarters along the loop of John Wayne International Airport in Orange County, nothing on his desk but potato chips and a diet soda. ''That made me a celebrity, sort of.''

It also made him the money that allowed him to pour millions into his political career, including $1.6 million into the effort to remove the Democratic governor from the Statehouse and insert himself in it.

Because try as he might to step away from the car, Mr. Issa is bombarded at every turn with calls for an explanation to those nagging questions about two arrests for car theft in his youth.

''This stuff is 30 years old,'' said Mr. Issa, dressed in a blue polo shirt and khakis, his hair combed and parted with tonic, not hair spray as preferred by political veterans.

Such is the state of California politics. Already $38 billion in the red, the state is expected to have to finance a $30 million referendum on a governor who was just elected last November. On the same ballot California voters will be asked to pick a new governor should they back a recall.

And you can blame Darrell Issa or thank him for propelling a movement that just a few months ago looked as if it was going nowhere. The signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot -- nearly 900,000 -- are expected to be certified this week. If so, the recall vote will occur in late September or early October.

When asked why he was sinking a sizable piece of his personal fortune and reputation into the effort, he spoke of leaving a legacy.

''Some people want to amass a great amount of wealth and make a great looking obituary,'' he explained. ''I'm going to die with more money than is good to leave my son.''

So the two-term congressman has the Democratic governor reeling. According to a recent Field poll, 51 percent of likely voters say they would support the removal of Mr. Davis from office.

But whether they would turn to Mr. Issa, 49, is another question. In April, the Field poll found that, of registered voters, 79 percent had no opinion of Mr. Issa, a sign that he was barely known. Of likely Republican candidates, former Mayor Richard J. Riordan of Los Angeles, leads as the preference of likely voters, according to a July 16 Field poll.

Next comes Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor with no political experience. There is Bill Simon Jr., the conservative who lost to Mr. Davis in the last election. Next are a couple of little-knowns and at the bottom of the list is Darrell Issa.

Still, he has a Congressional seat and a $100 million fortune, and angry Democrats are determined to tar him, saying Mr. Issa's political record is shorter than his police record. They also say that his conservative views about abortion, guns and immigration are out of step with most of California.

''He might as well have tattoos on his arms,'' said Bob Mulholland, a campaign adviser to the California Democratic Party. ''Arson, car thefts, gun charges. The man who muscled his way through life thinks he can muscle his way into the governor's office. He's mistaken.''

And some Republicans, worried about his electability, are not much kinder. Despite the fact that Mr. Issa has single-handedly rejuvenated a moribund party that holds no statewide office, they say it is time for him to step aside.

''Schwarzenegger's the choice,'' one Republican operative said. ''So, in two weeks, Republicans are going to pat Issa on the head, thank him for his service, then walk over his dead body.''

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Mr. Issa admits he is not gifted. He is dyslexic and to compensate for this, he says he studies hard, shoots from the hip and tries to memorize prepared statements.

''I have an I.Q. of 100 plus a little bit,'' he said. ''I have to work real hard to get things when I read.''

But now that the recall looks like a sure thing, Mr. Issa has developed his own formula to rescue California from its deficit without increasing taxes: changes in the worker's compensation system so employers pay less, wage freezes for state employees and 10 percent cuts across the board.

An issue for Mr. Issa is whether his voting record from his conservative Southern California district would play statewide. For instance, on the votes that the National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action League considered to be the most important in 2002, Mr. Issa took its preferred position zero percent of the time. At the same time, the National Rifle Association gave him an ''A'' on gun issues. Voting records show him to be against most environmental measures and a big supporter of business.

Mr. Issa is of Lebanese descent and in that regard has tried to work with Arab leaders, particularly after the attacks of Sept. 11. He was the target of an assassination attempt by Irv Rubin, founder of the radical Jewish Defense League. The plot was discovered, Mr. Rubin arrested and late last yea jumped off the second tier of his cell block and died.

Mr. Issa, with an eye to one of the state's large constituencies, says he votes consistently pro-Israel. ''Peace in Palestine is inevitable,'' he said. ''The question is how do we make it happen today.''

Darrell Issa was raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the second of six children. His father sold trucks and worked a second job at night grinding valves. His older brother William got his own room, and the young Darrell Issa admired him.

A poor student, Mr. Issa dropped out of high school at age 17. He joined the Army.

He was discharged on a hardship when his father fell ill and was sent home. In 1972, he and his brother William were arrested in the theft of a Maserati from a Cleveland car dealership. The case was dropped.

Last month The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in 1980, after Mr. Issa had re-enlisted in the Army as a 27-year-old officer, he was again arrested with his brother on felony auto theft charges.

The paper said that William Issa stole his brother's car, sold it to a dealership in San Jose and that within hours Darrell reported it stolen. The case was eventually dismissed for lack of evidence.

Mr. Issa offers a two-pronged defense. One is to blame it on youth. ''Look, I was a kid,'' he said. ''What would you rather have? A cardboard-cutout who never made a mistake when he was young only to become governor and then carry on like a juvenile delinquent?''

''I love my older brother Billy,'' said Mr. Issa, explaining that he got caught in the orbit of his ne'er-do-well brother who has five felony convictions for car theft and is currently unemployed in Cleveland. ''He stole a lot of cars. He stole my car. You could say that drew me to the car alarm business. Poetic justice.''

But there is the matter of possessing an unregistered handgun in Michigan a few months after the car theft charges. He was fined $100 and put on probation for carrying a long .25 millimeter semi-automatic. The gun belonged to me, says his brother Billy.

''Don't blame my brother for my sins,'' Billy Issa said from his home in Cleveland.

The telephone rings. It is a political ally on the other end telling Darrell Issa that reporters are seeking more details on his past. He laughs.

''Some day,'' Mr. Issa tells him, ''somebody's going to report on those little pineapple squares I snitched at a party.''

Correction: July 26, 2003, Saturday An article on Wednesday about public scrutiny of Darrell Issa, who is financing the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis of California, referred incorrectly to the unregistered gun he carried in the early 1970's, an offense for which he was sentenced to probation. The weapon was a .25-caliber semiautomatic, not .25-millimeter.